Barenboim's 'Das Rheingold' at La Scala, in Music & Vision del 22 maggio

High Expectations
Barenboim's 'Das Rheingold' at La Scala,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

If the morning sky is an indication of what the weather will be during the rest of the day, Das Rheingold, seen by your reviewer at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy on 19 May 2010, anticipates a rather dull Ring. This is regrettable because the new joint production by Milan's major opera house and Berlin's Staatsoper unter den Linden has been much awaited in the music world for nearly two years. The program involves presenting one opera per year -- first in Milan, then in Berlin -- and to show the full cycle in Spring 2013 as part of Wagner's bicentennial celebrations.
The expectations were high because, during the last few years, some very good new productions of The Ring have been seen. Over the last five years, your reviewer has seen and listened to at least four new better-than-average productions of what is generally considered a scary enterprise for a theatre manager: a huge orchestra, thirty soloists, and many transformations of stage sets. The four are in this order: the intimate yet grand Aix-Salzburg-Berlin Philharmoniker production, the Köln-Venice production, the Florence-Valencia production and the Erl production.

A scene from 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
From La Scala teaming up with the Staatsoper, a reviewer would expect something at least of the average level of these recent productions, and not something like the rather hilarious Ring staged in Lisbon or the very first attempt to produce a Russian Ring in St Petersburg -- both less than fully satisfactory operations. Most of the problems of this Milan-Berlin Das Rheingold have to do with the stage direction, the stage sets, the rather bleak lighting and the crowd of dancers and mimes on stage. It would be advisable to think them through and make appropriate arrangements before Die Walküre is shown on 7 December 2010 as inaugural offerings for the next La Scala season.

A scene from 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
The Ring cycle is a work of extraordinary scale. Perhaps the most outstanding facet of the monumental work is its sheer length: a full performance of the cycle takes place over four nights at the opera, with a total playing time of about fifteen hours, depending on the conductor's pacing. The first and shortest opera, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up four and a half hours. The cycle is patterned after ancient Greek theatre: three tragedies and one satyr play to be presented in a single day from morning to sunset. The Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or 'Preliminary Evening', and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, of the trilogy proper.

Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Mime and Stephan Rügamer as Loge in 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
The scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes and several mythical creatures over the eponymous magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung.

Johannes Martin Kränzle as Alberich and Stephan Rügamer as Loge in 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
The music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Beginners may wish to approach The Ring with the now classic booklet by Max Chop, printed in Saxony several decades ago and re-printed many times in several languages with a Pierre Boulez's foreword. As the cycle is based on complex myths, I suggest also reading Robert Donington's Wagner's Ring and its Symbols.

René Pape as Wotan and Doris Soffel as Fricka in 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
These old texts are more useful than the many essays in the thick La Scala book where emphasis is placed on the 'political meaning' the stage director Guy Cassiers intends to give to his (and our) reading of The Ring: a revolt of the excluded from capitalistic globalization. Firstly, this is a rather old way to approach Wagner. Secondly, I could not see politics in the rather tacky staging, unless one gives a political meaning to showing Valhalla (the Castle of the Gods) as a rock concert venue. Or is it political, or politically correct, to present the Rhine as a highly polluted river (already a few thousand years ago)? Also, why crowd the stage with dancers, mimes and 'doubles' of the already numerous characters? Guy Cassiers (and his team) are the worst offenders of this production, which, we hope, will be greatly corrected before we see Die Walküre in December.

A scene from 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
The musical aspects have a different and higher level. This month, every Tuesday night, an Italian television channel shows the Ring which Daniel Barenboim conducted in Bayreuth nineteen years ago, with modernistic Kupfer staging. That was excellent and very dramatic conducting. From Daniel Barenboim, nobody would expect Boulez's fast pacing, Solti's elegance, von Karajan's flair for landscape and nature or Mehta's lyricism. But one can expect passion, yet with strict adherence to the score, starting with the magic prelude where the music builds up in E flat major, and the tonic sound reaches abysmal depths before an arpeggio movement, an embryonic motive, becomes genuinely melodic, and a sense of timelessness sets in. From the key of E flat major, we feel that he is at ease with the score, but now his reading is, at the same time, quietly lyrical and dry.

Doris Soffel as Fricka, René Pape as Wotan, Marco Jentzsch as Froh and Jan Buchwald as Donner in 'Das Rheingold'. Photo © 2010 Brescia e Amisano - Teatro alla Scala
Barenboim works with a very good orchestra and an extraordinary cast. On the women's front, the three main protagonists -- Doris Soffel, Anna Samuil and Anna Larsson -- are superb. René Pape is an imposing Wotan. Stephan Rügamer and Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperracke are the treacherous Loge and Mime, and Johannes Martin Kränzle sings Alberich. All the minor roles are very well sung and acted.
Copyright © 22 May 2010 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

RICHARD WAGNER
DAS RHEINGOLD
DANIEL BARENBOIM
LA SCALA
MILAN
BERLIN
ITALY
GERMANY
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